A coalition of environment groups has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court alleging serious flaws with the Joint Review Panel's final report that recommended the pipeline be approved because "Canadians will be better off with this project than without it."

Critics have argued that KXL doesn't matter and that there are alternatives available for transport, but investment banks report that continued pipeline delays could start to impact investor confidence in tar sands production growth expectations past 2015

One risk: emerging low-carbon fuel standards for transportation fuels - already in place in California and threatening to go national - makes this high-carbon brand of oil very risky, especially as oil sand producers look to double or triple production by